March 10, 2011 RITA’s Research, Development & Technology Knowledge Management System Alasdair Cain, Transportation Specialist, RITA Research, Development, & Technology Office

The Research, Development, and Technology (RD&T) Knowledge Management System (KMS) By Alasdair Cain, Office of Research, Development, and Technology March 2011

3 RITA’s Research Coordination Activities RITA Research Coordination Efforts are comprised of:  Senior – level consultations through Planning Council & Planning Team  Working – level consultations through the Research Clusters  Project – level visibility into RD&T spending through the Knowledge Management System  Sharing of research outcomes and outputs through Technology Transfer RITA Planning Council & Planning Team Research Clusters Technology Transfer KMS Knowledge Management System

4 The RD&T Knowledge Management System (KMS)  Assist RITA in its research coordination, facilitation, and strategic planning efforts  Facilitate knowledge sharing and leverage opportunities for cross-modal collaboration across DOT  Provide DOT staff with a tool to quickly answer requests from external stakeholders for information on RD&T programs and projects  Foster research coordination and collaboration across federal and state government, academia, and industry  Enhance RD&T funding transparency in support of the Administration's Open Government initiative  Congressionally mandated  A publicly available, web-based, searchable database of DOT-funded RD&T project records  A central information repository populated by existing DOT agency data sources  Field structure: □ Project title □ Program □ Short description/abstract □ Project sponsor and performer POC details □ Project status (active, completed, etc) □ Funding amount □ Project findings and outcomes (reports/patents/rulemaking /new technologies, etc.) What is the KMS?Why do we need it?

5 KMS beta KMS Approach  Mined from existing data sources  Incomplete listing of projects  Variable quality (missing fields, etc)  Manual data entry in most cases  One time snapshot, no data refresh  Comprehensive list of RD&T projects  High level of data quality  Publicly accessible  Sustainment plan to maintain up-to- date database with automated data refresh processes Mature KMS Review Process  Summer Build KMS beta: ▫ Volpe Center contracted to build KMS beta ▫ Content provided by DOT operating administrations, supplemented by data from other sources like TRB ▫ Currently contains over 3,000 active RD&T projects and projects completed after 9/30/2008, (new content still being added) ▫ Accessible to all DOT HQ staff at: ▫ Fall Review Process: ▫ Internal review by DOT staff (Oct/Nov) ▫ External review by expert panel (Nov) ▫ Develop KMS Evaluation Report (Nov/Dec)  2011 – Establish “mature” KMS: ▫ Review KMS Evaluation Report and reach consensus on next steps ▫ Migrate KMS to DOT HQ ▫ Establish long-term database maintenance and sustainment approach ▫ Coordinate with TRB’s existing databases

6 Coordination with TRB’s Databases KMS RD&T Project Database a) Target DOT funded projects not currently included in TRIS and RiP, using information from existing DOT agency data sources b) Document "Technology Transfer" aspects of completed projects c) Establish a Mature KMS at RITA TRB's TRIS and RiP Databases d) Help TRB improve its coverage of DOT-funded projects in TRIS/RiP: - Continue existing efforts to populate TRIS and RiP with DOT-funded projects - Help implement the RD&T Strategic Plan agreement to populate TRIS/RiP - Provide “DOT-Funded RD&T” search capability in TRIS and RiP Export of KMS Project Database records to TRIS and RiP Export of TRIS/RiP Database records to KMS Project Database

7 KMS - Front Page Screenshot

8 KMS – Guided Search

9 KMS – Power Search

10 KMS – Research Cluster Search

11 KMS – Example Project Record

12 For more information: (202) Questions / Comments?